Julian Cope - Teardrop Explodes - The apocalyptic storyteller

Milan, 10 February 2005. Launch of Julian Cope's autobiography, “Head On / Repossessed”. Twelve minutes standing up, “like at the bar but without a cappuccino”, with the Mtv crew looming for an interview that may or may not ever air. Twelve minutes of Julian Cope, who without really answering the questions gives us a glimpse of his way of being a “shaman rocker”. And don't you dare laugh, the guy is dead serious...

Your autobiography is already a few years old now, and deals mainly with the late Seventies and the Eighties; how do you see that period now? Do you think that's where the roots of everything that came after lie?

Yes, I think so… after all, I'm very taken up with what I call "Futuretro" — moving forward by going backward… for instance in this book I wrote about Europe ("The Megalithic European", a study of prehistoric cultures in Europe, ed.), there's a sentence that in some way sums up what I think about human beings: "The reason I study prehistoric societies is that human beings are in a permanent state of becoming" — you never reach an end, so that's the only way to look at the future and understand what place we occupy. And then I tend to plan things long-term; there's a book I've been working on since 1990, still unpublished, called "Let Me Speak To The Driver". It's always been my method, to work "towards" something.

Do you have this same kind of relationship with rock's past?

Yes, even though much of the best music still has to be played. One of the most important things for me is the idea of "search and recovery" — I think part of my job is to carry a long stick with a torch on top and go around saying "What's here?" There's so much of that stuff… And when we talk about rock'n'roll, it's something that has nothing to do with pre-organized structures, it's like being privileged, "privi-leged", standing before the law and being allowed to do certain things. Even when I write, it's as if I had permission to write a book in the style of a rocker. That's the essential thing.

Have you ever thought about publishing the reviews you write on your website?

Yes, of course… that's the kind of thing that's good for my head, they're monthly deadlines, they keep me on my toes. And the channels feeding the brain always need to be kept open. Maybe one day I'll put it all down in black and white. That too is writing very much influenced by rock'n'roll.

…and by the idea of the rocker as shaman?

Yes, of course, moving forward by going backward is shamanic. And then I like creating "routines", clichés, and then smashing them to pieces. I think that's essential. Before coming to Italy I had a beard, I'd kept it for three years, and I decided to shave it off before setting out on the trip. It's the symbol of novelty, of entering into something new.

Your album Citizen Cain'd also seems full of certain musical clichés, with fairly explicit references to the Stooges or to certain atmospheres of mid-Seventies rock. Is it a way of recovering voices and "masks" from the past to make them speak about present things?

Yes, I'd say so. It's my way of showing that I live with the gods. And since I live with them, I recognize them for what they are and for how useful they are — that's what gods are for — and that's what matters.

Don't you think certain musical choices could simply be dismissed as "retro" or "classic"?

It's twentieth-century music, but it has to be the vehicle for twenty-first-century thought; many of the songs on the album speak quite specifically about today, they talk about "World War Pigs" and things like that. The cover itself is a comment on Western man.

What does it depict?

North of the border with Iran there's an ancient Bronze Age tomb, and buried at the top of the tomb is an Armenian saint. I went to see it on the day of the summer solstice, when the sun passes exactly through one of its windows. To me that's the image of the citizen Cain'd, far from the gods who no longer listen to him — "Cain'd" stands for "Cain" but in slang it also means "wasted, out of it".

Going back to the idea of the different "languages" you use: do you still have more or less orthodox side projects in the works?

I'm preparing a new Brain Donor record, we're recording in early April in San Francisco, together with the Monoshock singer/drummer, Ruben Fireglass — I want him to sing and play drums, while Doggen and I have written a ton of clichés. "We bring the clichés, you bring the free-rock." Until the cliché is no longer a cliché.

Do you think you'll come back to Italy with the band?

I'd like to, but travelling with musicians is a hassle. They're all crazy. And my problem is that I'm used to travelling alone, for book research and everything else. We'll see...

In the final part of your autobiography you say you were inspired by the "utopian" ideas of rock that came from people like Sly Stone or John Sinclair and the MC5...

When it comes to evangelizing I'm both Christian and Jewish... but I don't want to tell people what's right and what isn't. I'd just like to raise the awareness of those who listen to me and are already paying attention, without throwing out random bait. It's not propaganda; the great thing about rock'n'roll is that we're a confederation of shamans, which is the only kind of organization possible.

* with many thanks to Magda Di Genova

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